Teacher's read on news, developments, and blogs.

Online Dangers

Karl Fisch of The Fischbowl passes along this cautionary Ad Council video to spur discussion on how to educate students about the potential dangers of posting images and videos of themselves online:

The video has also served as fodder for spirited debate at Around the Corner v2, where Miguel Guhlin reacted by suggesting that all Internet posters, students and teachers alike, need to be "a bit thicker-skinned" when taking their lives online. A commenter accused Guhlin of "blaming the victims" for the misuse of their material. Guhlin responded by excerpting a related post by Pamela Parker at Texas Teacher Law, who notes that anyone who shares personal information online should keep the following in mind: "[T]he World Wide Web has returned us to the days when we lived in small communities and everybody knew your business."

2 Comments

This issue is something that k-12 teachers should discuss with their students. The anonymous feel of the internet can sometimes illicit a false sense of safety or security. Such illusions often entice people to post things that they would only say or do openly. It is therefore necessary to remind students that the internet is a public space and anything that they write or post on is likely to be seen by many people.

It is very important to discuss online safety with the students and parents. Sometimes parents just choose to trust their children, and this doesn't always work. Most of us do things without really thinking of the consequences when we are young.